Art of England Re-engineered Garments

John Squire, perhaps best known as The Stone Roses legendary guitarist and the artist who created their Jackson Pollack influenced album cover art, is now regarded not only as a songwriter of epic status but also as a sought-after contemporary artist. After two successful exhibitions at London’s Smithfield and Dazed and Confused galleries last year, he returns in 2008/09 with three exhibitions confirmed in the Capital.

His early artwork, which was suddenly propelled into a high profile realm as a consequence of his musical successes, inspired a generation of young music fans to explore 20th century painting, and many of his paintings are already iconic images and much loved works with their own identity. However, John Squire’s career as a visual artist has always taken its own trajectory, developing independently from his musical celebrity, and his focused, consistent output now demands critical attention in its own right.

John Squire’s work has necessarily been informed by his dual experiences as a musician and artist. Renowned for his paintings and sculptural works which have, since the late 1980s, fre-quented the covers of albums and singles from the Stone Roses onwards, this latest collection reveals a more thoughtful, mature selection of his current works.

Re-Engineered Garments, an exhibition of new paintings and mixed media works, will be on display at the Signal Gallery, East London this Spring. Building on a prolific year’s work and his two high profile exhibitions in 2007, John Squire’s collection of new art works illustrate his continuing desire to develop and experiment with a set of recurring mixed media motifs, whilst further pushing the boundaries of his current visual practice, and more confidently exploring the textures and layers which his canvases bring to life.

Squire’s latest bold paintings move into the realm of collage, layering pieces of fabric and patterned paper, which interweave with thick splashes of scratched, layered wax, against a backdrop of hessian canvas. The use of these second-hand materials also creates a visceral connection between the work and the original wearer.

Following on from his recent exhibition at Dazed & Confused Gallery where he first began to work hessian and rougher, more natural tones and textures into his painting, these new works offer more sophisticated, sharp plays of colour and intricate layering, which often mirror the patterns, lines and ripples of the natural world. Squire is in this way a rather quintessentially English painter; his paintings suggesting landscape forms, which move between the rural and the urban. An organic mapping of rivulets and pathways in works such as Wrist and Carbon Monoxide, sit in contrast to other canvases which offer more energetic, vibrant colours and dramatic lines, and a more urban feeling of chaos.

John Squire has most recently exhibited at The Smithfield Gallery, London (4 – 29 July, 2007) and the Dazed & Confused Gallery, London (6 September – 4 October, 2007).